text:
Defra ignored warnings of biosecurity failure at Pirbright
Dans ce pays ci, c'est bon, de temps en temps, de tuer un amiral pour encourager les autres. The execution of Admiral Byng.
The Sunday Times which normally annoys me more with every passing week today produces an almost extremely good piece* Read The Sunday Times and weep.in which it is demonstrated that warnings were given more than a year ago of a dangerous biosecurity situation at Pirbright and these were ignored by Defra itself as well as the Institute for Animal Health and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. In any system in which officials and ministers were held remotely accountable for grotesque dereliction of duty, those responsible would be shot. They have probably cost the country £300 million. To save £50,000 on new drains.
*Almost because it does contain a glaring error – which is, however, immaterial to the conclusion. For details see the always reliable Warmwell.
Daft. Error. Farce. Ridiculous. Arrogance.
Cattle Farming: The Herd Struck by Cattle Plague, Slaughtering the Infected Animals
Michael van der Guch, 1660-1725. Seventeenth-century disease control methods still being used by Defra.
And so it came to pass that the journalists, other than those of the BBC, with its direct line to Page Street, had enough of the pathetic lies told by Defra. And as the national food logistics chain felt the strain, Defra and its cast of clowns was finally to be smitten by the tougher media treatment they deserve. Because of the deficiencies of our faux-democratic system including the lack of transparency or accountability of the government and its servants and the short attention span of the media, barring even more new outbreaks, Defra may still get away with it. Wales and Scotland are both free to move animals to slaughter. The "stakeholders" (meat producers) are demanding Defra quickly ease restrictions in England, too. Defra has immediately capitulated to the demands of the stateholders. Defra is feeling lucky.
The idea that this new Defra shambles could all have been avoided is finally penetrating the consciousness of the journalists not that they are able to do much as interest has movewd on from this story even as the horrors emerge (panicked cattle shot down by Surrey police "marksmen" is just one such shambles of which more can be read at warmwell).
Some hacks are just smart enough to have figured out that Defra SW1 may be a long way from the rural muck but nevertheless it produces a line of pure bullshit and indeed this entire shambles began with a leaky toxic sewer pipe in Defra's own back yard. Not to mention truck loads of contaminated soil taken off the Pirbright site to sites all over Surrey. Others are either not smart enough or simply report what they are told.
I dare the hacks – I double dare them – to pick up some of this material we call farm yard manure, and throw it in the face of the department and its vulnerable secretary of state. (We lack squeamishness here in Surrey). But it is doubtful the media will demonstrate the necessary persistance.
Still, if I was the PM I'd be bloody furious that the comrades had screwed this up. And I think the odds for vaccination are starting to shift, especially next time.
The distinguished vet Carl Boyd lives next door to the latest infected premise and they are coming this morning to test his cows. The cows are showing no symptoms. They are the perfect animals to vaccinate. I am hoping he will demand the right to do so. He is one of the smartest men I know (consultant to my Percheron horse Rodin, as it happens) and not a pushover. The government and its thugs have just run into someone who I personally would not wish to have as an enemy. So, the situation has come to an interesting pass…
George Herbert, the parson poet, whom we read on the recommendation of Emma Tennant, wrote:
Cowards tell lies, and those that fear the rod;
The stormy working soul spits lies and froth.
Dare to be true. Nothing can need a lie.
A fault, which needs it most, grows two thereby.
Click here for your official Defra FMD movement licence for your rat
They reap as they have sown
The return of foot and mouth disease to Surrey has "baffled" ministers and provoked the usual reaction from the so-called National Farmers Union. (It's not a union – but a producer cartel.) The new prime minister is clueless. The title of this blog announces why I must return to this subject.
Witless ministers today profess themselves incapable of understanding why the disease has come back just one day after they officially announced it was beaten!
"Baffled" says tonight's Evening Standard. "Puzzled" admits the Environment Secretary responsible for animal health Hilary Benn, who graduated from Sussex in Russian and East European Studies and has the massive experience of having been in his job since June. The NFU's president Peter Kendall sounds just like all previous NFU presidents and has demanded once again that the disease be "stamped out" (this being NFU/Defra code for slaughtering healthy animals, with full compensation paid by everyone else).*
Predictably, sticking to the script, slaughter "on suspicion" has already resumed. Why not slaughter pensioners with influenza? Oddly, this is the same government that offers flu vaccine, on the NHS. Like a broken record, our beloved Prime Minister Brown is promising to eliminate the disease. Just as he promised last time! The V word does not pass his lips.
Once again, those of us who have since the 2001 débâcle been demanding vaccination have been ignored. Once again, we have been proved right. Had Defra ring vaccinated immediately following the original outbreak this summer, the cows now infected in the shadow of Windsor Castle would not be infected. I told you so. By not vaccinating now they are making themselves look like idiots.
Nothing is very complicated here. The disease is back because ministers are scientifically illiterate and because Defra and the NFU, led by the glamorous film star turned hapless chief vet Debbie Reynolds, despite their proven track record of failure, remain firmly in control.
One needs hardly to be reminded that the latest outbreak like the one that proceeded it originated with the escape of the virus from a government laboratory with collapsing toxic drains that nobody could organise themselves to repair and lorry loads of contaminated spoil being trucked off the site in all directions.
God forbid this is the standard of biosecurity prevailing elsewhere on the government's biochemical estate.
For anyone who still fails to understand the absurdity of this, I recommend Abigail Wood's book, A Manufactured Plague.
Abigail's book questions how foot and mouth came to be seen as one of the world's worst animal plagues, although it poses little threat to human health (although in the UK without much doubt it seriously affects human mental health and has a negative human impact in many other ways). She asks why, in the epidemic of 2001, the government's control strategy still relied on Victorian trade restrictions and mass slaughter. Her book is brilliant.
Abigail shows that for more than a century foot and mouth has brought fear, tragedy and sorrow – damaging businesses and affecting international relations. Yet these effects were neither inevitable nor caused by foot and mouth itself but were, rather, the product of the legislation used to control it, and so in this sense foot and mouth is a 'manufactured' plague rather than a natural one.
Abigail, like the rest of us, has been ignored. The NFU, which defends the exports of its members no matter how many billions it costs the rest of us, meanwhile retains statutory rights of consultation (in effect, so far, a veto) over government policy. Foot and Mouth has cost the country between £10 billion and £20 billion since 2001 in order to protect a trade worth a tiny fraction of this sum. Has our government, has the prime minister, the intelligence to do a simple cost-benefit calculation? This is madness.
The only good news is that the Queen's pad at Windsor is in the middle of the control zone. She's a countrywoman at heart. Maybe she could have a word with Mr Brown and tell him to stop his ministers and their officials acting like such stupid cows. Go for it ma'am – we peasants are depending on you.
Warmwell remains the indispensible source for hour-to-hour developments.
The estimable Matthew Weaver's FMD blog is back in The Guardian.
Sheepdrove's blog is also indispensible.
* This looks encouragingly like a potentially serious crisis for the NFU (known in my manor as "no fucking use") whose traditional "line to take" is now out of step even amongst the growing disgruntled "members" of the NFU. There are numerous successful and humane British farmers (such as Sheepdrove) who are loudly pointing out that they also have rights, including the right to compete in the market if necessary with vaccinated meat. It must be asked – if we have to have a row with the EU, so what? In the meantime the NFU is dangerously exposed and revealed as the emperor with no clothes. Farmers are now really stuck and it is largely because the NFU has colluded in an antediluvian policy. Even the farmers who once towed the NFU line on vaccination have grown curiously silent.
Stop press: Friday morning, 14 September: It would be odd if we were about to win but the odds just increased a little bit, although they are still very long against us, Mary and I feel. We also think we are being read in Whitehall and the news offices and are starting to make a difference. I get the same feeling. I am still worried Defra might try to sabotage a vaccine trial.
Remind me again: why are we not vaccinating?
I do not go to Defra press conferences and they probably would not let me in the building. Besides, the sun is shining and we are behind on the haymaking. But perhaps one of the zombie hacks in attendance at La Reynold's next performance could briefly bother to ask the chief vet why animal owners are not allowed to vaccinate against FMD at their own expense? They could ask her if it is true or false that vaccinated animals can be differentiated from infected animals. And after she has explained why owners like Sheepdrove should not be allowed to vaccinate, even at their own expense, they should ask her to disclose Defra's own vaccination protocol. If Defra is finally forced to vaccinate will they then insist on slaughtering vaccinated animals? If so, why? They should ask her to release the minutes of the stakeholder group meetings and to disclose who the members are. I ask because I really, really would like to know.
The news from Dorking is not great as I have a pig over there… and a lot of people coming to lunch. Can anyone tell me where I can source a giant marrow, to feed 100?
The Guardian's estimable Matthew Taylor is back for more live news blogging here.
It is on Matthew's blog that I see the chief vet has disclosed that we are now within a 7-day period when it is possible to vaccinate, although no decision has been taken to do so:
12.00pm: Debby Reynolds says that Defra believes the foot and mouth outbreak may now be contained and that the risk that infection will spread outside the affected area is "very low".
She told a press conference that day seven of the outbreak was a critical day, as it was the first time a decision could be made to vacinate, but – for now – there will be no vacination of animals.
Still no news on the third suspected outbreak in Dorking – outside the protection zone – though the farmer is confident that his calves are suffering from a pneumonia infection and not foot and mouth.
Can someone help me understand the significance of seven days?
The NFU is insisting today that they are "not against" vaccination. This is in a letter attacking "smart Alec" journalists (I presume I am among their number) and includes the curious claim that "we are not against vaccination." This really won't do. The NFU have been hysterically against it for years. When have they ever been for it? Under what circumstances would they urge vaccination? Have they advised Defra or shared with Defra any opinions on the use of vaccination at present? This denial of the NFU that they are against vaccination is slippery and disingenuous as well as brazen and arrogant.
Compassion in World Farming who are my near neighbours in Godalming have proposed a very sensible "vaccinate to live" policy which I am waiting to hear the NFU endorse.
10 top things about foot and mouth
Happier days at Pirbright: The Surrey County Vaccine Farms
The 10 top things about FMD 2007.
10. Never mind the disinfectant, send the whitewash. A dramatic improvement in government media/presentational skill, mirrored by no raising of the game by editors, compared to 2001. See 8, 7 below.
9. Scientists are often psychotic, in the clinical sense meaning they have lost touch with reality. Any reality. Ground reality. System reality. Media reality. The award goes to Sir Brian Follett for his sagacity in the Sunday Times: "The reason we slaughter animals is because, in island countries, it works. We can keep the virus out." A healthy debate in the bioscience community about vaccination would be welcome but it is so odd that those who obstruct vaccinations use arguments that are simply ludicrous and false.
8. Journalism in Britain is quite dramatically terrible as anyone can tell you when they observe the coverage of something they know plenty about. The absence of scientifically trained journalists is very apparent as it was in 2001. Rolling news channels by far the worst – torrents of drivel, 24 by 7. This is the syndrome that we saw with the media in the run-up to the war in Iraq. A dependence on authority to timetable events and establish the agenda, ignoring all contrary evidence or burying it on page 94. The BBC is consistently mediocre.
7. The media tropes are identical. Terrible disease. Tragedy for farmers. A threatened cow named Mabel in a petting zoo. The editors cover every big story by habit. This is why they prefer stories that "come back" so they can order the clips and cover them like last time. A dirty media secret is that editors do not like anything too new – they don't understand it and have no precedent to inform their decisions.
6. Mediocrity of civil service. By which I mean the the glamorous chief vet who frankly wasn't that hot, though she will now get a K. Not as sinister as Scudamore but she did everything she could to keep the approach NFU friendly, and I predict the vaccination kits will not be used. She pretended vaccination is an option while never intending to use it unless someone put a bullet to her head. So far, she's got away with it. I think it's a cynical tactic. I exempt the local field Defra office in Surrey who have distiguished themselves by being actually human. It has been my own experience as the owner of a registered farm (currently on the very edge of the surveillance zone) that the worker bees at the local Defra office do try to be helpful, despite the insane orders they receive from headquarters.
5. NFU more digusting than ever and why they are taken seriously is a disease of public policy. Literally. The government is required to consult them under a 1947 Act passed by a Labour government that idiotically thought they were empowering a union. What we have, despite recent reforms, is a monster in which not all members even get to vote, and the last five bosses have been knighted. This is a corrupt relationship in the sense of mordant decay. It produces terrible public policy. They are so unbelievably slippery and unconvincing. They are probably reading this wondering whether to sue me but some one is reminding them of MacDonalds.
4. Internet has dramatically improved networking and communications for us "troublemakers" who object that government policy is unscientific, brutal and disgusting. But while the networks are activating quickly, frankly we lack real political clout. We do not have a clunking great fist. The challenge is to convert our command of the facts and superb intelligence into meaningful pressure. I admit this is a tough problem when our democracy is so intangible, and note that it is a problem not unique to this issue.
3. This time around there is some interesting potential for lawyers. I imagine there are going to be some rewarding issues of liability and indemnity to fight about. This will pay for some very beautiful houses in France and a lot of very good claret.
2. Pirbright should be closed and the entire operation moved to a rocky island off Scotland, preferably.
1. Gordon Brown has been bloody lucky. So far.
This is my best guess at the moment. If the outbreak gets much worse then this list becomes inoperative, of course, and I will have to do it over.
Matthew Weaver is back today in The Guardian. Not to be missed. Ditto Warmwell. Rapidly improving Sheepdrove blog has good piece on "vaccinate to live."
Dial 999
Call the cops! There's been dirty work at the crossroads. Something nasty has been spotted in the woodshed.
In its Initial report on potential breaches to biosecurity at the Pirbright site, 2007 the Health and Safety Executive "confirms" Pirbright as the source of the FMD virus. As reported here on Saturday. You would have to be very dense not to have figured this out already.
Wind and water are unlikely vectors, says HSE. The great flood theory advanced by the glamorous chief vet is a problem because, er, the water flows away from the farms and towards Pirbright. And the air filters seemed to be working. Not that everything looked honky-dory, if you read between the lines. It seems Defra is responsible for regulating the FMD virus whereas the HSE is responsible for other oversight, so here are two new questions: (1) how are/were these responsibilities co-ordinated, or were they, and (2) how and who at Defra was discharging this responsibility? If this person exists, their reports must be disclosed. I suspect the buck here actually stops at the desk of the glamorous chief vet. Here is another lovely picture of her:
So, the suspect vector is human. Acting either negligently or criminally. A specific human, as I proposed two days ago? There is "chatter" that laboratory people may have had a number of improper contacts and have violated employment contracts prohibiting these. But that there is one Prime Suspect. "Presentational" management of the HSE ensures we have a document to deconstruct that has been deliberately designed by the government's finest spin doctors to be as opaque and non-committal as possible.
There are various potential routes for accidental or deliberate transfer of material from the site, says HSE. As a statement of the blindingly obvious, this is a classic. And then this fascinating couplet:
We have investigated site management systems and records and spoken to a number of employees. As a result we are pursuing lines of inquiry. Amazing. Incredible.
Release by human movement must also be considered a real possibility. Further investigation of the above issues is required and is being urgently pursued.
The polished blandness of this, redacted by Sir Humphrey in person, tells me this is Whitehall Speak for: "Oh, shit!" There is obviously a lot going on that we are not being told, although I promise we shall find out. Just some initial thoughts. "Various potential routes" means more than one. "We are pursuing lines of inquiry" confirms they have one or more suspects.
So much for the vaunted biosecurity, then. And so much for the government's hope that this could all be quickly blamed on Merial labs. That HSE have not immediately done so is suggestive, if not conclusive.
So, Pirbright is a potential crime scene. A couple of lard-arsed coppers lounging around the front gate (as seen on all TV channels) seems an inadequate response by the Surrey constabulary.
Round up the usual suspects!
Another crime scene is the newsrooms of the national media who are blundering about oaf-like on this story. The word "vaccination" was banned from the BBC 6 o'clock national news program yesterday. Sky has a very pretty girl outside Pirbright who knows the square root of fuck all about FMD and would struggle to define or even spell epizootic. Sky has a medical correspondent who seems to be getting around this, but their continued reliance on the NFU as an authority is perverting their coverage and making them look ever more naive and stupid. The BBC as one might expect is slavish to official sources.
The newspapers meanwhile print tosh as today's unsigned Guardian panel on vaccination shamefully demonstrates. The Guardian has had a good blog on this for a couple of days but the Whitehall staff are conduits and the paper has not yet really hit its stride. The Telegraph is keen. The Times is wildly unreliable; their reliance on official sources and leaks too obvious, the suspicion of spin always too close.
I am working on a list of the 10 top things about FMD as I am told lists generate enormous numbers of clicks (and like all bloggers this is the subject that obsesses me most, as well as knowing how many readers I have in Albania). Please send me your nominations. An early candidate for the top most stupid thing is from Sir Brian Follett in The Sunday Times who sagely declares: "the reason we slaughter animals is because, in island countries, it works. We can keep the virus out." This is pretty delusional, isn't it Sir Brian?
Updating at 10.03 a.m.: Le Monde has just arrived with a brilliant Plantu cartoon illustrating a story that declares there to be a "Pénurie mondiale de lait: les prix vont monter." The French government, says the paper, is going to seek an adjustment of milk quota to meet demand for milk and milk products which is now outstripping supply in Europe.
Updating at 12.05: Hooray! Matthew Weaver's blog is back in the Guardian.
Hooray again!!! Sheepdrove is back.
15.00: Sky continues to produce the worst sort of commodity journalism with painful absence of producers who understand the science or the ground reality. To the dichotomy of ground reality versus system reality there is the third dimension of media reality which is completely detached from either! The imperative of 24 hour TV is that powerful authorities are capable of manipulating it almost all the time. Sometimes, an "event" can disrupt this control but usually the authorities will maintain their overwhelming influence on the definition of the narrative. Only independent and authoritative journalists can challenge this and even so they are limited in what they can do. This is why I read the media to know what's in the media, but not to discover what is actually happening.
Vaccinate now – cull the NFU
I fear that one of Surrey's finest herds of cattle is currently being exterminated. The herd of Aberdeen Angus has a distinguished pedigree but yesterday a couple of heifers seemed to have minor symptoms of lameness and the response seems to have been to kill them all. (I hope I am wrong and am doing more checks – but it is confirmed that they are killing more animals.)
Update: The herd being culled has been identified and is not the one I initially feared. More on this later. I still inclined to the view that this outbreak can be contained – but only if the government acts now to deploy its most effective weapon.
Waiting for animals to develop symptoms and then killing them is less effective as a means of preventing the spread of this illness than immediately ring vaccinating the affected area. The Dutch know this. The immunologists know it. It is rejected in Britain by a producer's cartel who have created a situation where the taxpayer indemnifies them for their business risks and mass slaughter of healthy animals for cash is the raison d'etre of their business.
If the government will kill all the animals and pay for them then it saves all the costly business of feeding the beasts and selling them on the open market. Never mind that some do not want their animals killed, because they are used for milking, or for smaller-scale production aimed at local markets. Or that most of the animals killed are healthy. Or that even animals with foot and mouth can make full recoveries. Or that it is safe to eat vaccinated meat. And that tests can distinguish vaccinated animals from diseased ones.
In Britain this cartel is represented by the ill-named National Farmers Union which is not a union but an annex of the still deeply sinister Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This perverse relationship has profoundly damaged the British countryside in the past and threatens to do so again.
The NFU agribusiness cartel spent yesterday demanding slaughter using the code words "stamping out" to describe taking healthy animals and killing them in a field, a process to be followed by the dispatch of large checks. And the horror is that once again the NFU is getting what it wants, popping in to Downing Street, appearing next to the chief vet at Defra news conferences, and being treated by 95% of our moronic media as the only authentic spokesman for the countryside.
So, we are back to slaughter on suspicion and the killing of dangerous contacts. No disease even needs to be proven. And the indicators of scandal continue to shoot into the red zone.
There turns out to be a history of biosecurity failures at Pirbright. The place is falling apart and a hugely expensive refurbishment project is supposed to be starting now. Yet only now is a serious independent examination getting underway of the biosecurity at Pirbright.
Oddly, this strategic national laboratory seems to exist without the slightest oversight by anyone, as far as I can tell. I doubt that Waverley borough council has a clue how to regulate class 4 biosecurity laboratories. This statement is not correct. As a later story makes more precise, Defra seems to be responsible for some of this and the HSE for other parts. It is still rather opaque how this surveillance has worked in practice and the evidence suggests it has not worked at all.
It seems that Pirbright have just received planning permission for all sorts of schemes but none of this has been covered in the Surrey Advertiser as far as I can tell, nor would it be, it not being the dream of estate agents to sell costly mansions on the doorstep of a hazardous biochemical research park.
So here we are and after years of arguing for a scientific approach to disease rather than a commercial one in which an illness is elevated to an economic crisis, the situation is the perfect scenario for vaccination. The specific virus is known. The vaccine is in stock. There is currently just one cluster of disease hence a ring vaccination scheme can be implemented with high confidence.
Not vaccinating is more than negligent it is stupid and vastly increases the chance this disease will spread. I suppose the NFU doesn't really care because the suits who run it will just get more and bigger checks, and they never see the animals, anyway. I sggest that an NFU "member" who disagrees open his books.
Small farmers are ignored by the NFU (although it takes their money, persuading them by its clever marketing that it is an authentic countryside voice.) But of course these "country" members are entirely unrepresented when it comes to the big decisions.)
The stupidity of journalists like the one on CNN yesterday who repeated the lie that vaccination hides the disease is very probably attributable to the mendacious briefings offered by the government, the NFU and the NFU thugs and fellow-travellers who control certain Internet news groups (such as U.K. Business Agriculture, the nastiest place on the net).
These people conceal their real interests and character-assassinate those who have advocated putting a scientific approach ahead of the compensation cheques. It is a scandal that farmers get compensated for illness. Nobody else does. It is a scandal that the NFU has exercised a veto on policy. It is a tragedy that Gordon Brown cannot see any of this. You do not need to be a vegetarian to know that killing a child's healthy pet goat is wrong. Or that individuals should have the right to choose vaccination for their own animals, in preference to a disgusting policy of exterminating precious animals, domestic or commercial, on the whim of some vet (another unjustly deified profession).
The entire annual meat export trade is worth less than one block trade in the city of London. British agribusiness, such as it is, is actually pretty feeble, and pretty often vile (who is for a Turkey from one of Bernard Matthew's sheds?) When are we going to get real about agriculture and stop allowing privileged producers to raid the Treasury?
I live in the country and drink at the pub with people who farm. We are making hay in our meadows right now. Many of these farmers are friends. But I don't ask them to send me a cheque when I have writer's block. If they are worried about foot and mouth they should buy insurance, or vaccinate. Why is this a problem?
The calculation of ministers, armed with their new media skills, is that what the public doesn't see, will not upset them. Hence the rush to keep the helicopters out of the sky. The BBC and Sky news had already self-censored the most graphic images of the last slaughter in which the Woolford cattle were shot down side-by-side, one by one in a makeshift pen. The cowardice, ineptitude and ignorance of the 24-hour news channels is a subject for continuing discussion. A hare-brained blonde on Sky explained they had censored their pictures to spare us distress. This, apparently, is news judgement at Sky – we will not be shown the truth, so that we may be spared distress. Only journalism rivals politics for its hypocrisy.
Anyway – no danger the viewers shall be distressed, the new air exclusion zone means all further images will be censored.
I am still somewhat confident this outbreak may be limited in size – even though there are serious questions when it really started. In a report on the OIE site the glamorous Debby Reynolds has apparently reported that the "Start date" was 29/07/2007. The 29th of July? But that was the Saturday before the Thursday evening when "symptoms were reported to the local Animal Health office".
"Is this a mistake – or were symptoms actually noticed five days earlier? It matters," notes the always on-target Warmwell, another battle-scared veteran of 2001!
The government is running out of time to show they have really learned any lessons from 2001.
Notably, Abigail Woods, a lecturer in the history of medicine at Imperial who was brilliant in 2001 at exposing the lies of the NFU and their lackeys, has returned to the fray in today's Guardian, here.
I was travelling today and am now returned. I hear Sky News has once again covered itself in shit. The problem with Murdoch's media is not their transparent self-interest but their mediocrity.
Check frequently with Warmwell for news updates.
Excellent Guardian FMD blog here run by Matthew Weaver, journo who may just "get it". Matthew is doing a great job tracking the news. Indispensible.
What the hell is going on at Pirbright?
One thing definitely upgraded since the 2001 FMD disaster is the government's management of information. A good thing for them because the disclosure that the current FMD epizootic could be "made in Whitehall" ought to be a considerable scandal and probably would be if the hacks were not so dense. As in 2001 the best information is not coming from the mainstream media but the bloggers of which Warmwell is the gold standard.
On Sunday we had a choreographed series of news conferences in which the hand of synchronity was readily discernable. The prime minister himself – caring and serious, doing everything possible, stressing the countryside was still open. So that's all right, then.
The Institute for Animal Health was the first to come out pointing the finger. I think they may have been represented by Gene Kelly, in his softest shuffling shoes. I do not claim to understand this outfit. They may or may not be responsible for Pirbright, it is hard to tell. I confess I am not even clear who owns the freehold, who has the licences, or who issues them. Anyway, they are the first, emerging to say they are cooperating with the government but that their biosecurity is flawless. As even the hacks could figure, this implicity points the finger at Merial Animal Health. Merial has a lab at Pirbright but the relationship with the Institute remains opaque.
So Merial sends a spokesman, a Mr Donald O'Connor, of fancy footwork, to say that they are cooperating with the government too and their biosecurity is also flawless. Or maybe this was Homer Simpson. One could say he is dancing to the suggestion that the virus could have escaped from the next-door Nissen hut. This could be construed as pointing an implicit finger at the Institute. But Merial is the obvious fall-guy, guilty or not. Whitehall was already briefing on Sunday night that Merial is their prime suspect. There is a suggestion that investigators may have identified an individual as a vector of contact. Stay tuned.
This was a shameful moment for Sky and the BBC live from the scene whose reporters were professionally raped by Merial. What is the point of satellite uplink trucks if your reporters are zombies? No questions were permitted of Merial, despite their status as prime suspect! This is news management at the logical extreme – the journalists are treated simply as conduits. Reporters should have protested and physically obstructed the Merial executive from leaving without answering any. But the days of real journalism are long gone.
Then the chief vet, the glamorous former Hollywood star Debby Reynolds appeared, telling us that more animals were being killed and that it was too soon to judge the cause of the outbreak. This is of course ridiculous in that it is obvious the cause of the outbreak was a biosecurity failure at Pirbright, even if the specific vector is not yet told us. The question is: what is and has really been going on at Pirbright? If the questions are being asked at all, they are not being answered in public.
Can someone help me on the history, please? Am I wrong that Pirbright was once a MAFF research station? What exactly has happened recently or is it a longstanding arrangement that this collection of not quite Nissen huts on the Hog's Back (irony) has become some kind of public-private virus campus? Does anyone know or care what is in fact the nature of the science happening at this place? Should it be there at all? It has London at its front door and the countryside in the back garden. It sounds like a Michael Crichton novel waiting to happen. Except it has already happened. Is this where we want to create our virus pole? I do not recall anyone being asked.
Whether or not the government's administration, strategy and delivery on animal health are much better this time around than in 2001 remains to be seen. Disregarding that the outbreak started at a quasi non governmental complex. They have been oddly lucky this time – I don't think there is much evidence of movement and none so far of spread. I will already concede they have been a little less dreadful than last time. La Reynolds is certainly an improvement on the sinister Mr Scudamore. But the NFU still seems to retain a veto on policy. Why can't ministers see through this cartel? Is it because it claims to be a union, and appeals to some left-over leftish nostalgia among our "Labour" rulers? Ministers must know that the NFU's purpose is to drain the treasury. It's as democratic as the Soviet Union (using a remarkably similar voting system). That's all.
If you look at Pirbright on Google earth it is a mess and who can tell whose lab belongs to who? The Tories may be on to something if they start sniffing for maladministration. It seems certain money has a part to play in this, and the desire of the government to spend less. The government real-terms cutback on animal health seems to have coincided with its outsourcing to an animal health quango. Is this part of the government or not? Yes – and no. It seems sure that conflicts of interest are built in.
We need to know much, much more about Pirbright. It seems clear there were warnings – ignored – of an inherently unsatisfactory biosecurity environment. There seem to me also some commercial questions to consider and whether there is a conflict between commercial activities and government research labs sharing the same site, when that site is well known to be largely obsolete and is poorly located for the work it does.
I do not know but I am not clear that it is comfortable that the Institute is seeking contracts on its own account while apparently simultaneously making facilities available to private companies such as Merial. What exactly are these relationships? All these contracts are doubtless marked "commercially confidential". They will not want us to know.
The real danger of FMD is that it provokes mad administration syndrome, in which vast sums of money are spent protecting people who are grown up and should look after themselves. Nobody else is compensated like these big commercial farmers. Make no mistake. This is agribusiness. FMD and our response to it are the product of a diseased agricultural economy, in which European policy plays a part but Britain's unique talent for maladministration makes everything worse.
The evil NFU plays a malign continuing influence and it is a subsidiary scandal that the media continues to treat them as a legitimate authority without pointing out the commercial interests of the people who run this organisation. Gordon Brown should ask himself why the government uniquely compensates the NFU's members for business risk, and nobody else (except arms dealers). Farmers should insure themselves for epizootic risks, and the government should allow those who wish to innoculate their animals to do so.
Oversight and accountability are not features of the British political process and there will be less than ever now the government has mastered the tricks of concealing information and most of the media has given up looking beyond the official sources.
My neighbours are furious. The single word reaction of one of them last night, when I encountered him after making silage, was: "Bastards." This is a widely held view. No matter how often the gorgeous Debby Reynolds bats her eyelashes.
In my neigbhborhood, which remains 5km from the surveillance zone, the initials NFU have long been widely regarded to stand for No Fucking Use. Click here for excellent (if now slightly dated) report on the NFU.
I am amused to discover that the search term "virus escape" generates 2,290,000 "hits" on Google.
Magnus Luinklater who was magnificent in 2001 is on top-form in The Times today. He is a solid writer.
Many of my old allies and friends from 2001 are returning to the radar screen. Warmwell, one of the best is here.
Update: I am now 2km from the edge of the surveillance zone.
The good, the bad & the ugly
I told you so yesterday afternoon and today all newspapers confirm that the FMD outbreak was a consequence of a biosecurity failure at the government's own animal health laboratory.
The most searching and independent investigation is now required into the circumstances, although it may not lead anywhere. I have consulted my microbiology consultant at Cambridge who points out that biosecurity is never a matter of preventing a virus escape but merely of possibly delaying one.
It is in the nature of these viruses that they are sneaky. Prof. Brian Spratt of Imperial College has been appointed by Defra to head an inquiry into biosecurity at Pirbright. We need to know much more about terms of reference and potential conflicts before it can be accepted that this is a satisfactory approach. I would like to know that the police are involved, for a start, since Pirbright is potentially a crime scene.
A very initial thought: this outbreak may not be so bad, despite the damning and bizarre circumstances. Defra was faster to stop animal movements. The farms around Pirbright are pretty small and movements fairly limited anyway. So far there's no evidence infected animals have been through the livestock markets.
If this was, say, a case of a lab worker running shoulders at the pub with a cowman, or a delivery vehicle stopping off at Pirbright, picking up the 01 BFS67 virus and dropping it off at the farm around the corner, and given the relatively small number of ruminants and especially pigs in the neighbourhood (often not much more than pets), this outbreak could be contained quickly.
It would be sensible to ring vaccinate now but I can't see Defra letting this happen. So they will slaughter probably only a few hundred animals and get away with it. Still, there are plenty of open questions.
Terrorism is bound to be raised as a hypothesis. I'm very sceptical that there is a cell of Islamic veterinarians behind this, notwithstanding the supposed Glasgow doctor plot.
Cock-up and carelessness and inevitability seem more probable causes. Pirbright let an antique FMD virus out the door, which merrily and predictably infected cattle in an almost adjacant smallholding in Surrey. Or perhaps it was not Pirbright, but a commercial lab that seems to have established itself at Pirbright. It would be good to know who is responsible for biosecurity at this complex.
So, the presumption must be the virus release was accidental and/or negligent rather than criminal. Although criminal cannot be excluded.
A more inconvenient truth about Pirbright is that it is the wrong laboratory in the wrong place. The American equivalent FMD lab is on an island and answers to the Department of Homeland Security. Putting an virology lab next to the A323 might seem a counter-intuitive arrangement.
We need to know much more about Pirbright and the Institute for Animal Health, the quango that operates it and its current relationship with Defra. The annual report is here. The IAH claims to be "advancing, safeguarding and improving" animal health whereas in fact it has recently accomplished something else entirely. The commercial relationships of the IAH are also pretty opaque. To what extent had the IAH turned Pirbright into a vaccine factory, operated by a French pharma company? These are things we need to know.
What is the government strategy? We need to know whether they will again adopt a hateful and disgusting slaughter of healthy animals to protect the meat export market, which at a few hundred millions a year is an irrelevent proportion of Britain's international trade.
I fear that Defra will again find excuses not to vaccinate and will instead slaughter on suspicion, hoping that this time they can do it more discreetly. Also, the law has been changed now so nobody will be able to resist without commiting a criminal offence themselves.
The spin control is already better. Debby Reynolds, after her lengthy Hollywood career and retraining as chief vet, is less obviously sinister than her predecessor although she is not a natural media performer. I was not impressed by her press conference performance on Saturday or that she recognises full and frank disclosure is vital to the interests of the rural community and the nation.
(Another spin control: Helicopters are now banned from recording the scenes of slaughter. Defra says this is to avoid causing "panic" in the animals but of course it is actually to spare the authorities from being broadcast at their dirty work. The animals in this case live in Surrey, where the sky is always full of helicopters anyway, and not just in Surrey, but almost next to Farnborough airport.)
We need to hope the media does better. The vaccination issue seems much more alive this time than it did at the start of the last outbreak. Reporters must also learn to recognise the NFU for what it is – an organisation representing the biggest and dirtiest commercial farmers, whose business is industrial production and subsidy farming.
More updates through the day.
The latest Defra release is here.
FAO note specifying biosecurity standards for such facilities as Pirbright is here.
Defra's Pirbright Lab suspect in FMD outbreak
STOP PRESS (10pm): IT IS NOW ALMOST CERTAIN THAT THE VIRUS CAME FROM PIRBRIGHT.
It is a virus strain consistent with that found in laboratories, Defra says. A new exclusion zone includes Pirbright. The story is moving fast. But this disaster almost certainly originated in the government's own FMD laboratory.
The Pirbright Laboratory of the Institute of Animal Health is the leading suspect as the source of the virus in UK's ongoing FMD outbreak. The IAH is a quango sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). It's "clients" include Defra, the Department of Health, the Department of International Development, and a number of international organisations. Biohazardous research and training is commonly performed at Pirbright including a diagnostics course 16 – 27 of April 2007 including ample receipt and preparation for FMD virus/antigen/genome detection; use of cell cultures for FMD virus isolation; ELISA for FMD virus antigen detection; preparation of primary calf thyroid cells for use in diagnosis; RT-PCR for FMD virus genome detection; FMD virus antibody detection by liquid phase blocking ELISA, solid phase blocking ELISA, virus neutralisation test and Cedi test FMD virus strain characterisation.
The laboratory is practically adjacent to the infected premises in the current outbreak and inside the 10km surveillance zone.
According to route mapping software the distance by road is 8.5km but as the crow flies it is closer to 5km. The Pirbright lab is somewhat south of Pirbright so the distance may be even closer.
If confirmed as the source this would represent a disastrous biosecurity breech by the government's leading epizootic research establishment.
The laboratory is a world reference centre for and has major responsibilities to the Office International des Épizooties (OIE) and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) for the diagnosis of diseases in an emergency. The diagnostic services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The list of diseases for which diagnostic services are provided includes FMD and it is known that all known strains of FMD are held at Pirbright on a reference basis.
Here are two more questions: (1) If there has been a biosecurity breech was it deliberate or a mistake? (2) Given that FMD has long been considered a potential biological weapon, are the police involved in the investigation at Pirbright? (If not, why not?) The refusal to state the viral strain implicated does not bode well for official transparency.


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- Home
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- Trash Sticker - Residential Program
Trash Stickers - Residential Program
Allegany County Government has a residential/household trash sticker solid waste disposal system. A trash sticker must be attached to each trash bag or item brought for disposal to any of Allegany County's residential Refuse Sites, including Mountainview Landfill (for Allegany County residents use only). Each refuse tag costs $1.00 and is bright pink.
You Need to Know
- Trash Sticker is required for one garbage bag 40 gallon maximum.
- One Trash Sticker is required for one garbage can 40 pound maximum.
- A maximum of 10 garbage bags/garbage cans per day per resident is permitted.
- A maximum of 2 bulk items per day per resident is permitted for items requiring 6 or more refuse tags due to space limitations at the refuse disposal sites.
- Tires: Although tires cannot be deposited into the dumpsters at the Refuse Sites or Landfill, the site attendant accepts tires at the following Refuse Sites: Flintstone, Little Orleans, and Oldtown, during regular hours of operation. A maximum of four tires per day per resident is permitted, and three Trash Stickers are required for one tire. Tires are also recycled by appointment in Cumberland. To make arrangements please call the County Recycling Office.
- Businesses and commercial entities cannot use the refuse site drop boxes.
Examples of the Number of $1.00 Trash Stickers Required Per Item
Other items are based on comparable size.
# of Stickers
1 Trash bag (any size up to 40 gals. max. OR 40 lbs.)
1 Trash can (any size up to 40 gals. max. OR 40 lbs.)
3 Chair, Sink, Toilet, or Rug (5'x7' or smaller)
3 Microwave, Printer, Table, Storm Door, or Bicycle
3 Laptop, Tower, Monitor, or Television up to 20"
5 Television over 20" (diagonal)
6 Reclining Chair, Push-Lawnmower, Bathtub, or Grill*
6 Mattress or Box Springs up to Full Size*
9 Rug or Pad (over 5'x7')*
9 Dresser or Cabinet*
10 Mattress or Box Springs over Full Size*
12 Couch or Love Seat*
15 Riding Lawnmower, or Garage Door*
Not Accepted at Refuse Site Drop Boxes
- Appliances with Freon
- Ashes
- Brush (see Mulch Site & Yard Waste Recycling)
- Dead animals
- Hazardous materials
- Lead acid batteries for vehicles
- Liquids
- Lumber
- Stumps
- Tires- see above
Where to Buy Trash Stickers
Call to confirm Trash Sticker availability and hours of operation. Many have a minimum purchase requirement of for five Trash Stickers.
Barton Town Hall
19018 Legislative Road
Phone: 301-463-6347
Allegany County Government
Finance Department
701 Kelly Road
Hours: Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m
Naylor's Ace Hardware
1350 West Industrial Boulevard
Phone: 301-777-9101
Flintstone Refuse & Recycling Site
26706 National Pike
(MD 144 – I-68 Exit 62 Fifteen Mile Creek)
Flintstone, MD 21530
Phone: 301-478-3156
Hours: Thursday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Sunday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
City Hall
59 East Main Street
Phone: 301-689-6000
Rite Aid Pharmacy
101 Bishop Murphy Drive
Phone: 301-689-2422
Frostburg Rental & Sales
227 E Main Street
Phone: 301-689-7368
B&B Meats
11329 Upper Georges Creek Road
Phone: 301-689-6225
1064 National Highway
Phone: 240-362-7186
LaVale Pharmacy
1221 National Highway
Phone: 301-729-3535
Little Orleans
Little Orleans Refuse Site
Hours: Friday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
D&D Pit N' Go
5721 Lower George's Creek Road SW
Phone: 301-463-2418
The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy
19 Main Street
Phone: 301-463-5757
Pit N' Go
15915 Lower George's Creek Road Southwest
Phone: 301-463-2432
Midland Volunteer Fire Department
14809 Railroad Street
Phone: 301-463-2511
Pick N' Go (formerly RG's)
14730 New George Creek Road
Phone: 301-463-6610
Oldtown Refuse Site
18622 Lower Town Creek Road
Phone: 301-478-5229
Hours: Wednesday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Saturday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

subset: commoncrawl


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The CrossOver Chrome OS beta will let you run Windows software on Intel-based Chromebooks and Android tablets. Seamlessly run full-featured Windows software that is not available in the Google Play store alongside mobile apps. Run Windows utility software like Quicken and Microsoft Office, or DirectX games, like Wizard101. Games from your steam library will run with CrossOver Android at native speeds. Get rid of remote sessions and multiple devices! With CrossOver Android you'll only need one device to run your Windows programs and mobile apps.
Just run the CrossOver software on your Mac or Linux machine as you would any native application and get access to your favorite Windows programs with ease.
CrossTie is a major step forward for CrossOver's customers, because it makes installing Windows applications drop-dead simple.
No bogged down, choppy performance. Windows programs run seamlessly on your Mac or Linux to give you the full Windows experience on your preferred OS.
CrossOver provides cross-platform copy & pasting and access to your files under either environment.
Full access to our hands-on technical support team included with your purchase, we're here to help.


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No Unauthorised Parking Sign
No Unauthorised Parking Sign
British style warning sign
Conforms to British Standards and ISO 7010Custom designs and text available on request
warning Sign - No unauthorised parking- More Info
This No unauthorised parking sign is used to inform that is only for authorised parking and unauthorised vehicles will be wheel clamped wheel clamped ; this is in accordance with general safety regulations. This general safety sign conforms to the new 2013 legislation EN 7010 which replaces the old British Standard 5499. This warning sign conveys health and safety instructions for action in general safety.
This safety sign is available as a self-adhesive vinyl sticker or in poly propylene (a more environmentally friendly product than PVC). ' No unauthorised parking' is displayed as black text with a yellow background. This sign is available in the following dimensions: 200mm X150mm, 300mm X 200mm, 400mm X 300mm, 600mm X 400mm. Self-adhesive vinyl (stickers) are suitable for application onto smooth firm surfaces and is intended for use as an interior sign. Poly propylene is suitable for both exterior and interior safety signs and has a self-adhesive backing for smooth surfaces, but may need additional adhesive for rough exterior surfaces exposed to the weather. Foam PVC is intended for use as an outdoor sign, but is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. Foam PVC signs are manufactured with pre-drilled mounting holes.
No unauthorised parking is just one of the general safety signs available in our warning range. warning signs give instructions that must be followed and are indicated by a yellow background with black text..
warning Sign - No unauthorised parking - Legislation
No unauthorised parking signs should be located in/at areas where un authorised parking is not allowed . As it is a warning sign its instructions are designed to alert people to the possibility of danger. Warning signs provide safety advice, not orders.
EN7010 are standards that dictate uniform shape, colour and graphical symbol, and in this case the text required on health and safety signs throughout all European countries. They have been tried and tested to ensure safety signs are easily recognised and understood irrespective of language barriers, reading difficulties and poor eye sight. EN7010 also maintains standards of health and safety signage for all industry workers.
BS5499 is the British standard that describes the colour, shape and characteristics for each type of safety sign. This No unauthorised parking sign complies with this standard, whilst remaining acceptable under EN7010 regulations.
Please be assured that all the symbols on safety signs that we manufacture comply with current legislation.
If you want more information on EN7010 or BS5499 Check out our sign guide
or take a look at ISO's helpful PDF


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Director Jason Reitman has commenced production on his next feature, the drama Labor Day. The film is based on the Joyce Maynard novel of the same name and centers on a 13-year-old boy who convinces his reclusive mother to take in a drifter over Labor Day weekend. It's later revealed that the man is an escaped convict and the three spend a weekend together that will "shape them for the rest of their lives." Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin star as the two leads, and Reitman felt so strongly about his cast that he pushed the production schedule back a year until both Winslet and Brolin were free.
Reitman wrote the screenplay himself and is directing Labor Day as his follow-up to last year's Young Adult. As a big fan of Reitman's past work (Thank You For Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air), I'm eager to see him tackle this weighty dramatic material. Clark Gregg and James Van Der Beek also star in the film. Hit the jump to read the full press release, which includes the updated synopsis.
Here's the press release with the synopsis in bold:
HOLLYWOOD, CA (June 13, 2012) – Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom, Inc., and Indian Paintbrush announced today that principal photography has begun on "LABOR DAY," from Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Jason Reitman, with Academy Award®-winner Kate Winslet and Academy Award®-nominated Josh Brolin starring. The film is shooting in Massachusetts.
Based on Joyce Maynard's novel of the same name, the film is written and directed by Reitman ("YOUNG ADULT," "UP IN THE AIR") who will produce with his partner Helen Estabrook through their Right of Way Films banner, along with the Academy Award®-nominated team of Lianne Halfon and Russell Smith ("YOUNG ADULT," "JUNO") of Mr. Mudd. Steven Rales ("YOUNG ADULT," "LIKE CRAZY") and Mark Roybal ("EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE," "NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN") of Indian Paintbrush will serve as executive producers.
"LABOR DAY" centers on 13-year-old Henry Wheeler, who struggles to be the man of his house and care for his reclusive mother Adele while confronting all the pangs of adolescence. On a back-to-school shopping trip, Henry and his mother encounter Frank Chambers, a man both intimidating and clearly in need of help, who convinces them to take him into their home and later is revealed to be an escaped convict. The events of this long Labor Day weekend will shape them for the rest of their lives.
Winslet ("REVOLUTIONARY ROAD," "THE READER") stars as Adele Wheeler, the reclusive mother and Josh Brolin ("TRUE GRIT," "NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN") is Frank Chambers. Gattlin Griffith ("GREEN LANTERN," "CHANGELING") plays Adele's son Henry. Rounding out the cast is Tom Lipinski ("SUITS") as the young Frank; Clark Gregg ("MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS") as Henry's father Gerald; Alexie Gilmore ("DEFINITELY, MAYBE") plays Marjorie, Gerald's new wife and Henry's stepmom; Lucas Hedges ("MOONRISE KINGDOM") plays her son Richard; Brighid Fleming ("GAMER") as Henry's friend Eleanor; James Van Der Beek ("DON'T TRUST THE B—- IN APARTMENT 23") as Officer Treadwell; Maika Monroe as young Frank's sweetheart Mandy; Brooke Smith ("GREY'S ANATOMY,") as Adele's friend Evelyn and Micah Fowler as Evelyn's son Barry.


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|Home :: Hotels :: My Account :: My Basket
Standard Twin Room
Gymnasium at Islazul Elguea Hotel
Massage Therapy at Elguea Hotel
Thermal Pool
Hotel Elguea Restaurant
Hotel Elguea Rooms Block
Hotel Elguea Swimming Pool
Mud Therapy
Hotel Elguea is located on the northern coast of Villa Clara Province, ninety minutes by taxi from Varadero, and ten minutes from El Salto and Ganuza beaches on the border of Matanzas and Villla Clara province. This is an especially pleasant way-stop when traveling the north coast highway with bonus of getting a vigorous massage or steep in the therapeutic hot tubs.
Its wonderful climate makes the 1-star Islazul Elguea an excellent place to harmoniously combine holidays and health care. The vital treasure of the Elguea are its waters, that are reputed to be a rich source of minerals, contributing to overall health and quality of life. Elguea waters are hypermineralized, meaning they have high contents of chlorine, sodium, and bromine salts, and low contents of radon, and sulfide.
Their mean temperature is 45°C and they flow at a rate of 25 litters per second. Due to all these properties, its waters are prescribed for relaxation, revitalization, anti-stress, fitness, against obesity, respiratory, circulatory and neurological problems.
The 135 air-conditioned guest rooms are perfectly comfortable for a night's stay and have been fitted with bamboo furnishings, satellite TVs, telephones, in-room safes, and small refrigerators. And the bathrooms now boast modern fittings.
Active-minded guests can take to the large swimming pool, two tennis courts, and (if you can a quorum) the volleyball and basketball courts. And the spa features massage rooms, a simple gym, and various rooms for treating medical conditions, rather than beauty. But be prepared to have the facilities to yourself.
© 2018 Nigel Hunt
Not Reviewed By Nigel Yet
Air conditioning
Bicycle tour friendly area
Daytime activities programme
Disabled facilities
Ecological excursions programme
Field sports
Games room
Gym & fitness centre
International cuisine
Lobby bar
Mastercard & Visa (not USA bank issued) accepted
Medical services
Modern building
Money exchange
Poolside snack bar
Reception staff speak Spanish, English, French, German, Italian
Safety - uniformed security personnel 24hrs
Shop(s) with basic supplies, souvenirs & gifts
Swimming pool
Taxis desk
Telephone - national & international calls
Tennis court(s)
Tours & tourist information desk
TV room/bar (international channels & videos)
The Elguea Hotel has 99 rooms equipped with air conditioning, private bathroom, phone, balcony or terrace, satellite TV, twin beds, radio, power 110V/60Hz.
© 2018 Nigel Hunt
Air conditioning
Bathroom (ensuite)
Disabled facilities
Double bed
Hot & cold water
In-room safe
Satellite TV
Terrace (subject to availability)
Twin beds
Description and facilities details coming soon.
UK Sales :: Audrey :: +44 20 7498 8555 or 0800 298 9555
USA & Canada Sales :: Jeffery or Bastien :: Toll Free 888 361 9555
Havana Tourist Center :: Idelsis :: +53 7 863 9555
(less than 10 days)


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Apple may be working on a way to combine its multiple Apple user IDs, according to reports.
The report first came from MacRumors, which had a report that at least one customer questioning Apple CEO Tim Cook about needing multiple IDs -- for most users that's usually an original account and another for a MobileMe account. He received a quick response from a member of the Apple team. From the report:
MacRumors reader Robert emailed Apple CEO Tim Cook about the issue, and quickly received a phone call from an Apple executive relations employee. She had spoken to the team responsible for Apple IDs and acknowledged that they understood the issue and that more people would run into the problem with iCloud. She also repeated that there is no way yet to combine accounts but revealed they are working on it. In the meantime, she recommended picking a single account to plan on keeping indefinitely and to make all future purchases on that account.
U.S. & World
The takeaway here is that for now, Apple users will have to manage their own accounts and be mindful of creating or using them -- but maybe soon Apple will consolidate accounts into a single user ID.


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Our ORIGINAL West Coast Round Towels can be used as a round beach towel, round picnic blanket, round baby blanket, round yoga mat, round meditation platform, interior design piece or even as a bed throw. Our round towels truly are "The All Around Towel".
100% Cotton Terry Velour, Printed | 150cm Diameter
Imagine if every business in the world donated just 1% of their profits, products and peoples time to a meaningful cause outside of their organization. What would that world look like?
At Tofino Towel Co. we believe in a philanthropic & sustainable approach to doing business therefore we will be committed to what we call the 1% MODEL.
Welcome to Tofino Towel Co. When you choose to purchase our product you are subject to the following terms and conditions. We advise you to please read these conditions carefully prior to purchase, as once items have been bought; you are agreeing to abide with these.
All pricing is in Canadian Dollars (CAD) or United States Dollars (USD) and applicable sales tax will be added at checkout. If you are purchasing outside of Canada items will automatically deduct non-applicable taxes at checkout and all payments will be converted to CAD for final purchase. Tofino Towel Co. reserves the right to change pricing at our discretion and without notice.
All products are checked for quality prior to posting. Should a product be faulty Tofino Towel Co. will replace the goods. We don't exchange if it is simply a change of mind.
Your order will be dispatched within three business day, unless pre-order status is indicated.
Orders are shipped via Courier service for Domestic & International orders.
Once items have been shipped, they become the property and responsibility of the purchaser. If a product arrives damaged or is misplaced, it is the purchaser's responsibility to liaise with shipping agent. No refunds or replacements will be given for products missing or damaged in transit.
Please enter your shipping address correctly as once it has been received and dispatched we can not alter the address and you will be charged the standard applicable postage rate to resend.
If the product was marked with 'pre-order' your item will ship automatically when in stock and you will be sent tracking emails on the day of dispatch.
If you require Express Post options please contact email@example.com
Tofino Towel Co. is located in a small town located on Vancouver Island and offer flat rate domestic & international shipping.
Information on how to care for your new purchase can be found here!
Personal details – Any personal information that you provide to us will not be released, sold or rented to any entities or individuals outside of Tofino Towel Co. More details are here.
By subscribing to our e-news/registering to be notified when a product is back in stock you are authorizing us to send you communications.
Congratulations, you have just purchased "The Original West Coast Round Towel" by Tofino Towel Co. and we want you to have the best possible user experience right from the get go. When you un-wrap your Tofino Towel for the first time, we recommend that you put it in the dryer for five-ten minutes max. Your new towel will fluff right up lose all wrinkles and become super soft and ultra-luxurious. Your new towel has been all bundled up during the travels to its new home and needs a quick little wake-up call in the dryer to help perform its best. Now get out there and enjoy your new Tofino Towel!
The official care instructions as noted on the sewn tag recommend washing your Tofino Towel separately on delicate in cold water and then hang drying for best results. Choosing to ignore the recommended wash instructions is up to you but don't say we never told you so. That being said, we use our towels in our everyday lives and wash our Tofino Towels along with our regular laundry. To date we have not had a problem but again the official care instructions suggest washing your Tofino Towel separately on delicate in cold water and then hang drying for best results.
How the heck do you fold a Tofino Towel Co. round towel? We are asked this on a regular basis so we have decided to spill the beans. Check out our new three steps easy to use manual "How to Fold a Tofino Towel for Dummies".
The Mathea
Tofino Towel Co X Mathea Olin Limited Edition Canadian Collaboration
5% Of All Sales will go towards supporting Mathea Olin's journey to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games.
We are honoured and proud to introduce our new limited-edition Canadian Collaboration with sixteen-year-old surfing phenom Mathea Olin from Tofino BC. Surfing is set to make its debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games and Mathea Olin plans to be part of it representing the first ever Canadian Olympic surf team.
When we first learned of Mathea's story and started following her journey we became immediately inspired. Her positive attitude on life and determination to reach her goals is infectious and refreshing to witness this day in age. As parents ourselves of two young children it is promising to see that there are such positive role models within our youth for them to look up to.
We encourage you to follow Mathea's journey and cheer her on as she aims to make Canadian history at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games.
When we first approached Mathea to collaborate with us she was extremely welcoming and very excited to get involved with the design process. We reviewed several design directions together and, in the end, she assisted in designing a towel that reflects her uniquely determined, fun loving and positive attitude on life to perfection. The Mathea Towel is a limited-edition design with purpose and is the must have beach accessory for summer.
The Maverick
Versatile, functional and fashion forward. We designed this blanket for both indoor & outdoor use - it is perfect for picnics at the beach, as a cover up, use it for comfort during meditation or as a decorative bed throw.
100% Cotton Terry Velour, Printed | 95cm x 170cm
The Mystic
The Miracle
The Gypsy
100% Cotton Terry Velour, Printed | 150cm Diameter
We believe in a sustainable approach to fashion and that choosing the right products starts with choosing the right materials. We work directly with various fair-trade artisan makers from around the globe to create high quality multipurpose products that allow you to do more so you can own less.
Be sure to visit our friends and support local!
We will also send you special offers, new product launches and all the latest blog posts!


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Many people I know are contemplating with starting their own business these days so I thought I would share a superbly realistic article from today's WSJ. At the end of the day, having done the big company and the start-up in many different ways, I do agree that being an entrepreneur requires a special kind of person....so are the right kind?
Thinking about starting a business? Make sure you're cut out for it first.
In this bleak economy, lots of people are contemplating striking out on their own -- whether they're frustrated job seekers or people who are already employed but getting antsy about their company's prospects.
For some people, entrepreneurship is the best option around, a way to build wealth and do something you love without answering to somebody else. But it's also a huge financial gamble -- and some people, unfortunately, will discover too late that it's not the right fit for them.
Building a successful business can take years filled with setbacks, long hours and little reward. Certain personalities thrive on the challenge and embrace the sacrifices. But it can be a hard switch for someone who has spent years sitting in a cubicle with a steady paycheck.
So, how can you figure out whether you're suited for self-employment? We spoke with entrepreneurship researchers, academics and psychologists to come up with a list of questions you should ask yourself before making a big leap. Entrepreneurs, of course, come from all sorts of backgrounds, with all sorts of personalities. But our experts agreed that certain attributes improve the odds people will be successful and happy about their decision.
Keep in mind that any self-analysis is only as useful as the truthfulness of the answers -- and most people aren't exactly the best judges of their own character. So, you might enlist a friend's help.
Here, then, are 10 questions to ask to see whether you're up for the challenge of entrepreneurship.
1. Are you willing and able to bear great financial risk?
Roughly half of all start-ups close within five years, so you must be realistic about the financial risks that come with owning a business -- and realize that you could very well lose a sizable chunk of your net worth.
Consider how much you'll have to ante up and how losing it would affect your other financial goals, such as having a sound retirement or paying your kids' college tuition. Weigh the importance of starting a business against the sacrifices you might face.
Entrepreneurs should be sure that "if they lose this capital, it either won't destroy their financial situation, or they can accept the concept of bankruptcy," says Scott Shane, an entrepreneurship professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "Some people thrive on the financial risk; others are devastated by the thought of losing even $10,000."
And don't assume you'll be able to lower your risk substantially by finding investors. Less than 10% of start-up financing comes from venture capitalists, angel investors and loans from friends and family combined, Prof. Shane says. And that's true even in good economic times. Banks, meanwhile, often won't lend to start-up founders without a proven track record. When they do, they generally require the founders to guarantee the loan or credit line with their personal savings or home -- an incredibly risky proposition. (To learn how to mitigate risk by keeping your old job while starting a new venture, see "A Toe in the Water".)
2. Are you willing to sacrifice your lifestyle for potentially many years?
If you're used to steady paychecks, four weeks' paid vacation and employer-sponsored health benefits, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise.
Creating a successful start-up often entails putting in workweeks of 60 hours or more and funneling any revenue you can spare back into the business. Entrepreneurs frequently won't pay themselves a livable salary in the early years and will forgo real vacations until their business is financially sound. That can often take eight years or longer, says William Bygrave, a professor emeritus of entrepreneurship at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.
Even if you can steal away, it's hard to find somebody who can fill in for you. Many entrepreneurs must tow along their cellphone and laptop, so they can be available to answer questions from clients or employees.
Jennifer Walzer learned those lessons the hard way. In 2002, after being laid off from a $100,000 consulting job when the company closed, she started Backup My Info! Inc., which sells online data-backup services to businesses.
For the first year, the New York-based company brought in just $29,000 in gross revenue. Ms. Walzer didn't pay herself a salary until the third year, and even then it was a slim $30,000. She could have taken more out, but she wanted to shovel as much money into the business as possible to keep it financially sound.
Having no income for two years meant that Ms. Walzer had to be extremely frugal; she virtually never ate out or went on vacations or clothes-shopping trips. Twenty-nine years old at the time, she says, "I got very jealous of my girlfriends who got home at 5 o'clock every night and could go out gallivanting and pretty much do whatever they pleased." She'd occasionally meet friends for coffee instead of drinks, since coffee was less expensive.
Now that her business generates about $2 million in annual revenue, the tables have turned. Ms. Walzer says she earns more from the business than she did as a consultant, and "I have friends who are struggling to keep their jobs because they have bosses."
3. Is your significant other on board?
Don't ignore the toll running a business will take on your loved ones. Failed ventures frequently break up marriages, and even successful ones can cause lots of stress, because entrepreneurs devote so much time and money to the business.
"I'm always surprised at the number of husbands who start a business and don't tell their wives," says Bo Fishback, vice president of entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
You can avoid the heartache by talking at length with your spouse and family about how the business will affect home life, including the time commitment, changes in daily schedules and chores, financial risks and sacrifices. They must also understand the huge financial gamble they're making with you.
4. Do you like all aspects of running a business?
You better. In the early stages of a business, founders are often expected to handle everything from billing customers to hiring employees to writing marketing materials. Some new entrepreneurs become annoyed that they're spending the majority of their time on administration when they'd rather be focused on the part of the job they enjoy, says Donna Ettenson, vice president of the Association of Small Business Development Centers in Burke, Va.
"All of a sudden, they have to think about all these things they never had to think about before," she says.
Jeromy Stallings, the 33-year-old founder of Ninthlink Inc., a San Diego interactive-marketing firm with 15 employees, always felt he had plenty of passion for entrepreneurship and self-motivation. But when starting his agency in 2003 and hiring his first couple of employees, he realized he wasn't prepared for the day-to-day challenges of managing other people.
Mr. Stallings had assumed his passion would rub off on employees and they would do their jobs as enthusiastically as he did. But some clients started calling him directly, complaining that his employees weren't returning phone calls or that projects were behind schedule.
"My clients were saying, 'We love your passion, we love your skill, we're just having a really hard time with your management style,' " he says.
So, Mr. Stallings turned to peers, mentors and guidebooks for help. He realized he needed to work more closely with employees and create a more structured project-management system. "I didn't really have a plan in place for how they spend their time," he says.
5. Are you comfortable making decisions on the fly with no playbook?
With a new business, you're calling all the shots -- and there are a lot of decisions to be made without any guidance. You might not be used to that if you've spent years working in corporate America, says Bill Wagner, author of "The Entrepreneur Next Door," a book that lays out the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.
"For most entrepreneurial ventures, there's no structure," he says. "You're going into a business, and nobody has told you how to be successful."
Mr. Wagner has surveyed more than 10,000 entrepreneurs to find out what traits distinguish successful start-up founders from less-successful ones. Among other things, most entrepreneurs he interviewed said they liked making decisions. He doesn't rule out the idea that less-decisive people could become better at the leadership role. It's just that they will have to work a lot harder at it.
6. What's your track record of executing your ideas?
One of the biggest differences between successful entrepreneurs and everyone else is their ability to implement their ideas, says Prof. Bygrave of Babson College. You might have a wonderful concept, but that doesn't mean you possess that special mix of drive, persuasiveness, leadership skills and keen intuition to actually turn the idea into a lucrative business.
So, examine your past objectively to see whether you have assumed leadership roles or initiated solo projects -- anything that might suggest you're good at executing ideas. "Were you senior class president? Did you play varsity sports?" Prof. Bygrave suggests asking.
You might even find clues back in your childhood, he adds: "A lot of successful entrepreneurs were starting businesses when they were still kids."
7. How persuasive and well-spoken are you?
Nearly every step of the way, entrepreneurship relies on selling. You'll have to sell your idea to lenders or investors. You must sell your mission and vision to your employees. And you'll ultimately have to sell your product or service to your customers. You'll need strong communication and interpersonal skills so you can get people to believe in your vision as much as you do.
If you don't think you're very convincing or have difficulty communicating your ideas, you might want to reconsider starting your own company -- or think about getting some help.
In 2007, Brad Price left a $135,000-a-year job as an associate at a Baltimore law firm to purchase a PuroClean Emergency Restoration Services franchise, which cleans up property damage such as mold and flooded basements. A former Naval officer, Mr. Price felt he was very self-motivated and a good leader. But he was less comfortable cold-calling and striking deals -- something he'd never had to do in previous jobs.
"There's a big difference in waiting for the phone to ring and getting an assignment and having to make the phone ring," says the 33-year-old Mr. Price.
Mr. Price says he now has his wife handle the marketing and networking. "My wife is very good at that, 'Hey, next time a call comes in, how about you give it to us?' " he says.
8. Do you have a concept you're passionate about?
Every morning you want to jump out of bed eager to get to work. If you're not that exuberant about how you'll be spending your time -- or the business concept itself -- running a business is going to be a rough ride.
Ms. Ettenson of the Association of Small Business Development Centers has coached many prospective entrepreneurs about their chosen business. She always asks why they're doing it. If they suggest it's mostly for the prospect of making a lot of money or because they're tired of working for someone else, she steers them toward something more in line with their interests or avoiding self-employment altogether.
"If you hate doing paperwork, the last thing you want to do is become a bookkeeper," Ms. Ettenson says. "If you'd rather be outside taking people into the wilderness, then that's the type of business you should be in."
But it's also usually wise to find a business in an industry you are very familiar with; it will be much harder to succeed if you know little about the field. Mr. Fishback at Kauffman says he has steered a doctor and other professionals away from starting restaurants because they often don't grasp how difficult and risky restaurant ownership is. And they'd be competing against restaurateurs with years of experience.
9. Are you a self-starter?
Entrepreneurs face lots of discouragement. Potential buyers don't return calls, business sours or you face repeated rejection. It takes willpower and an almost unwavering optimism to overcome these constant obstacles.
John Gartner, an assistant clinical-psychiatry professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of the book "The Hypomaniac Edge," theorizes that many well-known entrepreneurs have a temperament called hypomania. They're highly creative, energetic, impatient and very persistent -- traits that help them persevere even when others lose faith.
"One of the things about having this kind of confidence is they're kind of risk-blind because they don't think they could fail," Prof. Gartner says. And, he adds, "if they fail, they're not down for that long, and after a while they're energized by a whole new idea."
You don't have to be as driven as, say, Steve Jobs to succeed. But somebody who gets deterred easily, or too upset when things go wrong, won't last.
10. Do you have a business partner?
If you don't have all the traits you need to run the show, it's not necessarily a hopeless endeavor. Finding a business partner who compensates for your shortcomings -- and has equal enthusiasm for the business concept -- can help mitigate the risks and even boost the odds of success.
David Gage, co-founder of BMC Associates, an Arlington, Va., business-mediation practice, points to a Marquette University study of 2,000 businesses. The researchers found that partner-run businesses are far more likely to become high-growth ventures than those started by solo entrepreneurs.
The key, Mr. Gage says, is finding a partner who prefers handling different aspects of the business, so you're complementing each other -- and not constantly at each other's throats.
Someone who likes to take risks and be in the spotlight, for instance, might choose a cautious partner who prefers to work in the back room. "If they're willing to work with that person, and not just look at them as a wet blanket, then it can be great," Mr. Gage says.
But taking on a partner isn't a light decision. Many partnerships split due to conflicts over everything from attitudes about money to miscommunication and contrasting work ethics. Mr. Gage recommends that potential partners spend several days hashing out the specifics of the business and how the arrangement will work to see if they're compatible.


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- If your eyes signal that your talk's off-track: Those quick, inadvertent looks to one side or the other (or up and to angle) happen at the same points that you might otherwise use a verbal "um" -- the points where you've forgotten where you are heading or what words come next. (Here's a picture of a very brief visual um from Stephanie's video of yesterday.) You're trying to mark your place, remember and regroup, but a glance to one side doesn't leave you enough time. Instead of these "visual ums," I recommend you practice some verbal time-buying phrases to build in a little more time to recall what you need to say.
- If your eyes avoid acknowledging your audience--all of the audience: If you avoid looking at audience members, they'll feel as if you are avoiding them, when you really want to connect with them. You don't need to look at everyone, just enough people throughout the course of your talk that they know you are engaging with them. If you've heard or been taught that direct eye contat is disrespectful, that's true--but only in certain cultures. Here's a Wikipedia article with more background on that issue. In most cases, however, the audience will consider it disrespectful if you don't acknowledge them with your eyes.
- If it makes you uncomfortable: This doesn't mean you can avoid it, but anything that makes a speaker uncomfortable is worth analyzing. Some speakers like looking at their friends' smiling faces to boost their confidence; some avoid looking at their friends and find it easier to make eye contact with audience members they don't know. You'll have to find out which works for you. Practice looking at sections of the room--front, back, and each side--throughout your talk, as well as at some individuals. Smile and engage with individuals from time to time, and develop your confidence as you go.
Finally, lack of eye contact often signals your discomfort and lack of confidence with public speaking. Want to practice getting more confident with eye contact? Practice on video or webcam--a lot of my trainees say video practice helps them with both confidence and with focusing their eye contact. (And you can use it to check whether you look down, away or use visual ums, then go back and practice how to get past those moments.) Please leave your questions or comments about eye contact in the comments, as well as any tips for Stephanie!


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There are many varieties of financial aid available to students at UM-Flint, each with their own benefits and requirements. It is important to know how each type of aid works before applying for aid! Click the links below to learn more.
Many generous donors provide scholarships at UM-Flint - these apply to many different academic programs and demographics. Students may apply for many scholarships through the general application, and various other scholarships are offered through external applications.
The Work-Study program offers students employment opportunities on-campus to help meet their financial needs. Job offerings are available in many disciplines and areas of study, and many students find jobs in their field.


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Nexera Dressers
Nexera is a second-generation family-owned furniture company that has been in the industry for over twenty years. They specialize in designing and manufacturing urban and contemporary furniture. Nexera furniture is made from Forest Steward Council (FSC) wood sources, uses only renewable energy to power its plant and packages its products in 100% recycled fiber packaging. Even its furniture is 100% recyclable at the end of its life cycle. Nexera is one of the most green furniture companies in the industry.
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Nexera Dressers
Your youth's bedroom will look spectacular with a four-drawer single dresser or a six-drawer double dresser by Nexera. The compact size of the Nexera dresser offers plenty of storage without taking up valuable floor space.
Nexera's four-drawer single dresser is minimalist cool with a touch of urban sophistication. The dual tone of white and ebony will easily match virtually any color scheme. The drawers have recessed pulls to complement the sleek look. This Nexera dresser would also make a superb addition to any dorm room or apartment. This Nexera dresser can be dressed up with bold colors like red or yellow. Or show off your eclectic style with a collection of black and white framed photos.
A contemporary white Nexera dresser has subtle curves along the base. It makes a great addition to a young gal's room. Her favorite dolls and jewelry boxes add that extra designer punch.
A square-edged contemporary Nexera dresser in your choice of natural truffle or espresso is a great addition to any bedroom. The truffle double dresser by Nexera is a wonderful neutral that works for any space. Espresso is a universal designer color that will fit in nearly any color scheme. A Nexera espresso dresser has a wonderfully timeless design that will look stunning for years to come. The subtle carved lines framing the dresser drawers create a slight touch of texture. Natural maple looks great in a toddler bedroom. Leave it as is or dress it up with a few stencils.
Discount Designer Furniture
Cymax is pleased to offer the web-based consumer with a one-stop shop for all your designer home and office furniture needs. Top designer brands including Nexera, and many more can be found at seriously good prices. Keep on-budget with extra savings found in free shipping on most items. It's time to throw your furniture a welcome home party—be sure to invite your neighbors.


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The iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are feature-rich, extensible, and can integrate with practically any existing enterprise solution. They all have features developed almost expressly to satisfy the needs of organizations of all sizes. Charles Edge provides eight useful questions for IT professionals to consider before iPhone or iPad implementation.
Do you have colleagues who are eager to use iPhones and iPads for business? Are you an IT professional engaged in deploying the iPhone and/or iPad in your company or organization? Charles Edge, author of Apress's latest book, "Enterprise iPhone and iPad Administrator's Guide," provides eight useful questions for IT professionals to consider before iPhone or iPad implementation:
- 1) What settings will go on each device?
- 2) How much automation will we leverage?
- 3) How will policies be managed?
- 4) How will our assets be tracked?
- 5) What written policies do we need to ratify in anticipation of our deployment?
- 6) How much user interaction will be required, and what kind of zero-tier assets can we provide to users for that interaction?
- 7) What kind of data will users need to access, and how will they access that data when they are in the office?
- 8) How will users access data remotely?
Enterprise iPhone and iPad Administrator's Guide" provides step-by-step instructions on how to deploy and integrate the iPhone among a range of professional environments - from large businesses and educational institutions to medium-sized offices. This book ensures that the process is achieved in a streamlined, efficient, and cost-effective manner. The book is intended for IT staff members who will be charged with planning iPhone and iPad implementations or pilot programs, as well as those that will be charged with ultimately deploying and provisioning the devices and delivering support to iPhone and iPad users.
The guide begins with an introduction to basic deployment concerns, then moves into actual methods and tools that you can use to streamline the deployment process. Next, an in-depth discussion of configuration and provisional profiles helps you deliver solid device setup, security, and adherence to organization policies. Finally, you'll learn how to use existing Help Desk teams to provide effective user support. Also included is coverage of the latest iPhone- and iPad-specific enterprise technologies (such as push notification and calendaring tools) as well as internal iPhone and iPad applications and web-based solutions for businesses.
Enterprise iPhone and iPad Administrator's Guide
By Charles S Edge Jr
Charles Edge has been working with Apple products since he was a child. Professionally, Charles started with the Mac OS and Apple server offerings in 1999 after years of working with various flavors of Unix. Charles began his consulting career working with Support Technologies and Andersen Consulting. In 2000, he found a new home at 318, a consulting firm in Santa Monica, California, which is now the largest Mac consultancy in the country. At 318, Charles leads a team of over 40 engineers and has worked with network architecture, security, and storage for various vertical and horizontal markets. Charles has spoken at a variety of conferences including DefCon, BlackHat, LinuxWorld, MacWorld, and the WorldWide Developers Conference.
Apress Media LLC, part of Springer Science Business Media, is a technical publisher devoted to meeting the needs of IT professionals, software developers, and programmers, with more than 1,000 books in print and a continually expanding portfolio of publications. Apress offers a complete package of books on developing for the iPhone and Mac OS X. For developers who want to code games, create compelling user interfaces, or better get a handle on just what makes an app cool, Apress has all the books to suit. Copyright (C) 2010 Apress Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.


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Pecan Turtle Brownies
Cakey brownies with a gooey pecan and caramel topping.
Pecans and caramel meet cakey, moist brownies—need we say more? This recipe was featured as part of both our Super Bowl Party Playbook menu and our Chocolate Desserts recipe slideshow. cbsiAdGlobal.BYPASSKEY='gotmilk'; cbsiAdGlobal.... Read More
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A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets. A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.
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Historical Period:
The 20th Century and Beyond
Blair Worden is Visiting Professor of History, Oxford University and formerly Research Professor of History, Royal Holloway College, University of London. He is the author of several books, including The English Civil Wars, 1640-1660.


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A brutal Origin decider expected
|AAP Image/Action Photographics, Robb Cox)
The man who sparked the "one punch and you're off" rule might be missing for NSW but Queensland have not ruled out more fisticuffs in what they predict will be a brutal State of Origin decider.
Maroons veteran Brent Tate said Queensland would not drop their guard despite NSW skipper Paul Gallen's withdrawal or be surprised if more punches flew in Origin III in Sydney on Wednesday night.
Tempers have boiled over in both Origin clashes to date.
Gallen's infamous game-one fight with Queensland forward Nate Myles was followed by NSW prop Trent Merrin's Origin II "cheap shot", resulting in four players being sin binned - including the victim, a surprised Tate.
Tate did not expect the trend to change in what he believed would be an intense decider at ANZ Stadium as Queensland vied for eight straight series wins.
"No one goes out there to start a fight or thinking there is going to be a fight," he said on Saturday.
"The incidents in the first two games, that's going to happen when there is so much pressure and pride - sometimes it gets really heated.
"There is so much riding on these games. It doesn't matter whether it is a series decider or a dead rubber.
"You want to win every one you are playing (and) tempers do get frayed."
The other Queenslander binned in game two for the second-half incident sparked by Merrin's punch, Justin Hodges, predicted early fireworks.
"The first 20 minutes are going to be pretty brutal," he said.
"Both sides are going to come out and try and stamp their authority.
"We expect a bit of fireworks, I guess."
But Hodges backed Tate's view that Queensland would not be looking for a stink.
"This is the biggest game of our careers. We are going out there to win the game," he said.
Hodges said they would not be underestimating NSW despite their nightmare preparation being capped by Gallen's loss.
"It (Gallen's injury) is a massive blow - he's their leader. It does leave a hole in the team," he said.
"But it doesn't matter who they bring in - they will be ready to go.
"It's all about attitude, how they prepare now and how they take the field."
Tate expected Cronulla juggernaut Andrew Fifita to start for the Blues after Gallen succumbed to a foot injury.
"For us to be thinking it weakens them as a side would be a bit foolish," he said of Gallen's injury.
"That's something we will have to be wary of.
"I just know that when your back is against the wall and you have a few injuries, it can really steel you. We've been in that situation before."
Queensland will ramp up preparations on Sunday when they move out of their Sunshine Coast camp and fly to Sydney.